The present invention relates to a chair which manages a child and allows for growth and adjunctive therapy of development difficulties. More particularly, the present invention relates to a chair with features which include adjustable members for accommodating children of differing sizes in proper seated positioning.
A child with lack of muscle control encounters great difficulty in maintaining a sitting position. Even when children with those motor problems can be seated on chairs without falling off, their bodies slouch or sink in the chair and their legs naturally spread to an abducted position. Such low muscle tone and lack of muscle control has technically become known as "ligamentous laxity" and is commonly associated with a variety of disorders including Down Syndrome and Cerebral Palsy. Collateral disorders, unfortunately, such as diminished mental development often accompany such disorders. To make matters even more disadvantageous, because of the lack of muscle control, the child's mental development may be indirectly affected as well.
Programs to stimulate cognitive development are most effectively coordinated when children are in a seated position. Therefore, children with postural disorders are hindered in their mental development by not being able to maintain a seated position. Vice versa, children with delayed cognition and other mental disorders often lack the concentration that naturally helps a child pay attention in an instructional setting, and such children also often slouch or rotate in their chairs. Accordingly, instructional assistants must constantly assist the children in maintaining their seated position rather than concentrating on teaching a lesson.
Consequently, due to the constant necessity to aid the children in sitting and the unending distractions that are caused by the aforementioned problems, any positive environment for cognitive development is easily destroyed. Even children who have full mental faculties but are hindered by their physical disorders are at a disadvantage in their learning environment. Furthermore, by encouraging the proper ideal sitting position, the body of a child with poor muscle development is trained to be supported in that position rather than a slouched position. By controlling and managing a child's physical body, therapy can be aided for almost all developmental difficulties. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which maintains the body of a child or other person with such difficulties in a sitting position.
As mentioned, a typical chair is not adequate for controlling the posture of such children. In fact, most modern chairs for classroom use by children have a curved form that even encourages slouching. An ideal posture is encouraged by a chair which is formed by members that meet at right angles with another so that the child's back and lower legs are biased in vertical positions and the child's upper legs are positioned horizontally. This position puts the pelvis in a vertical plane and, therefore, tends to uplift the child's head and allow alertness and thought. To encourage this position, a child's chair must correspond to his particular physical size and proportions. Thus, it is ideal for chairs to be custom built for each child's size and shape so that the optimal learning position for that child can be encouraged by the chair in which the child sits.
Further, it is ideal for the child's feet to be resting on the ground or another horizontal surface to help maintain the position of the pelvis, provide a surface for the child to push against and to discourage swinging of the feet.
In the past, some teachers have managed this problem by placing a box or foot stool beneath a child's seat so that the child may place his feet on the box or foot stool for support. In fact, some prior teachers have even fixed such boxes to the legs of the chairs in order to prevent the boxes from being kicked out from beneath the child's feet. It also is an object of the present invention to provide a means upon which the child's feet may rest for enabling support.
Unfortunately, children vary between one another and also change in size as they grow. Having an assortment of chairs for all sizes helps solve this problem, but can be costly since an oversupply is necessary in order to accommodate every child as the varieties of sizes in a random group would not be predictable. Practically speaking, having such an assortment also presents problems since there are usually not enough adult assistants who can pick out a proper chair for each child, especially when children are difficult to control and it cannot be ensured that a child will stay in a single chair once one has been selected for him. It is, thus, an object of the present invention to provide a chair for managing the posture of children, which chair is adjustable to fit children of a variety of sizes.
Previous patents do disclose seating apparatus with adjustable members, but no such prior art discloses a chair such as one of the Present invention which incorporates particular advantages for supporting a child as the present invention does. Of note, are disclosures corresponding to U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,466,350; 3,761,969; 2,723,788 and 4,082,356; which patents are disclosed as relating to a combined baby's seat and table, an article of furniture having adjustable parts and including a supporting unit adapted to receive a person in sitting or lying conditions, a portable sewing kit having the appearance of a rocking chair, and an educational puzzle chair, respectively.
Accordingly, it can be seen that there is a need for apparatus to overcome the problems enumerated above relating to support means for supporting children with ligamentous laxity. It is toward these objectives that the present invention is directed. Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become evident to those skilled in the art in light of the following.